


you must love cats

by naimeria



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: (so many cats), 5 Times, Cats, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 09:06:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3482465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naimeria/pseuds/naimeria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Steve wants a furry feline of his own, and one time he might just get what he wants.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you must love cats

**Author's Note:**

> I'm _really_ terrible at coming up with tags.
> 
> This was a request over on my tumblr (my url there is the same as my un here). Hope you like, sweet anon!

“And here I thought raining cats and dogs was just an expression.”

Danny’s taken to using his spare key exclusively, because knocking is disruptive and the wood makes his knuckles hurt and really what’s the point? Tonight being no exception, Danny is currently standing in Steve’s doorway, beer and Indian food in tow, staring down at the floor.

On said floor is Steve McGarrett, curled as tight as he can make himself, dripping water onto the nice pine wood floor and cuddling a small cat to his chest.

“I think she’s sick,” Steve says by way of greeting.

Danny crosses the threshold and crouches next to Steve, peering down at the bundle in his arms. It’s a skinny thing, just grown out of kittenhood, brown and tan with little paws wrapped around Steve’s fingers. Danny feels sorry for it, he really does, but.

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I’m gonna nurse her back to health,” Steve says in the strongest ‘duh’ tone Danny’s ever heard.

“I mean, I know that, but what’s gonna happen after she’s all better, huh?”

“We’ll get there when we get there, Danny,” Steve says, and great, now he’s sounding annoyed. Danny drops the point and reaches out to scratch the cat’s head. It mewls pathetically at him.

“I’ll go get another dry towel, then. Two, considering you’re wetter than the cat is.”

Steve gives him a grateful look as he ventures off to Steve’s bathroom for towels. He grabs a pair of dry sweats on the way down, just in case, and hopes Steve’s elderly neighbor needs some feline company in her life.

* * *

  
“It’s only for a few days, Danny.”

Danny wants to remind Steve that this is, in fact, Steve’s house, and the man can do whatever the hell he wants with it. The fact that he feels the need to rationalize with Danny about his activities is sweet, though, and a small part of him never wants to correct him, wants to always remain this connected to the McGarrett household.

“Yeah, yeah. Just, I don’t know, get a lint roller or something to get all the fur off. Black cats are nefarious shedders, and I’m pretty sure Chin’s allergic.”

“How would you even know that?” Steve asks, scratching the cat’s sweet spot right behind its tail. The purring intensifies and the cat spins, demanding forehead pets next. Steve’s smiling down at the cat now, and great, Danny’s stomach is doing that stupid flippy thing again.

“Because unlike you, I pay attention, remember?”

Steve’s affronted look is muted as he continues to pet the cat. It’s big, all athletic legs and pointed face, and Danny thinks it looks more wild than tame. “I pay attention,” Steve mutters to the cat.

“Yeah, ‘course you do. So why do we have a cat for a few days?” Fuck, it’s  _you_ , there is no ‘we’ _._ Danny has his own house, dammit.

“One of the officers over at the precinct needed a sitter for the next four days, and Duke suggested I take him in. Isn’t that right, Maximus?” The last words are aimed at the cat as it reaches up with big paws, demanding more pets. Steve laughs at him, and Danny has to swallow.

“How charitable.”

“Yeah, well. It’s just a cat. Doesn’t tear anything up, uses the litter box just fine, loves summer sausage. It’ll be easy.”

Danny gives a little wave of dismissal and moves to pour himself some coffee.

“Just leave the lint roller in the car, then.”

* * *

  
“I can’t believe someone would just leave her like this.”

Steve sounds spitting angry, voice low and eyes dangerous as he holds the precious cargo. Danny says nothing, but he’s right on Steve’s level, anger churning low in his gut as he speeds through another yellow light.

The cat’s hind legs had been mangled beyond repair, most likely by a dog. It’s now lying motionless in Steve’s arms, breathing quietly through its nose. Danny glances over and catches its deep blue eyes, half-lidded and emotionless, and wants to scream. The GPS tells him to turn, and he takes it a little harder than necessary as the phone parrots off that their destination is still 3 miles out.

“She was just laying there.”

Steve’s voice cracks a bit, and Danny can’t stop glancing over, can’t stop feeling awful for this poor cat, with its resigned eyes and bloodied fur, once grey and sleek now brown and red. They’d called an emergency vet and they knew they were coming, but even the vet tech had told them the cat’s chances were slim.

“We have her now, she’ll be okay, Steve,” Danny says, because he doesn’t like seeing Steve like this, so openly vulnerable and hating the world. Steve rubs a thumb over the cat’s nose and she leans into it ever so much, and Danny’s eyes burn.

* * *

  
“Steve, where’s the rest of the ham?”

“Uh.”

Danny pokes his head out from the recesses of the fridge and arches a brow. “Uh?”

“I ate a lot of sandwiches?”

Steve’s in the foyer doing something erroneous (most likely intentionally avoiding Danny, if his tone is anything to go by). Danny straightens and walks to the edge of Steve’s kitchen, rests an arm on the door frame, and hollers, “You don’t like ham, Steven.”

There’s an ample pause.

“I, uhh.”

Danny waits for a breath, then leans forward, lips pursed and staring only at drywall. “Gonna finish that thought?”

Steve pokes his head out from around the wall, sanding paper in one hand and picture frame in another. He’s honest-to-God  _pouting._ “He was hungry, Danno.”

For the love of- "Okay,  _how_ is it that you always manage to find these animals? Are they attracted to you because they see you as one of their kind?"

"A powerful predator who refuses to buckle under societal norms and domestications?" Steve has the nerve to sound haughty.

"Unbelievable," Danny mutters, wandering out from the kitchen door frame and into the foyer. He finds Steve effectively avoiding his gaze, looking down at the notches in the frame in hand. Danny cocks a hip against the desk, arms crossed. "Who's cat is it, then, Steven? Did you actually steal someone's house pet this time?"

"I would never steal anyone's cat, Danny, you know that," Steve says. Scratching his nose, Danny avoids Steve's gaze, because okay, that was a low blow. "Besides," Steve adds, "this one found me. Like you said, he must have known my superior-"

"Okay, let's calm that ego down for just a minute and get back to the real world," Danny says, hands up. "You know feeding an outdoor cat isn't a good thing, Steve."

"When its skinny and its nametag is so scuffed you can barely read it, it is," Steve says, apparently unable to be swayed. Danny sighs. 

"Well let's get to decoding the little guy's nametag, then. I'm sure his owner would be grateful. Where _is_  the cat, anyway?"

Steve ducks his head and resumed energetically sanding the frame in hand. Danny waits, impressed all over again with the level of patience he's managed over the years. In the near silence of scratching wood, Steve opens his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by a loud meow coming from the guest bathroom. Danny's brows raise, hands out and palms up.

"It was raining last night, Danno." It's almost a whine, and Danny can't help but laugh.

* * *

  
 "Honest to God, I never thought I'd be in this position, Steve." It's how Danny answers the door, not giving Steve a chance to pull out his spare key. Steve gives him one look and his face splits into a grin.

"Look at you, Danno,"

"Don't make me hit you, it'll make her scratch me," Danny says, stepping back and letting Steve into his living room. The 'her' in question is currently perched on his shoulder, a bright orange ball of fur with bright green eyes and little claws currently poking through his pinstripe dress shirt. Danny gives Steve a pleading look. "Every time I try and take her down, she clings to my skin like some kind of parasite."

"That's cause she wants some love," Steve says, reaching next to Danny's head and scratching the kitten behind the ears. She flexes her claws out of happiness, and Danny yelps, then smacks Steve's stomach with the back of his hand. Steve laughs and pulls away, but not without fiendishly rubbing his knuckles across Danny's cheek. Jerk. "So, why do you have a kitten?"

"Grace signed me up for it," Danny says, bringing a hand up and resting it on the back of the kitten. She wiggles her butt against his palm. "Apparently Christy from science class found it next to the school, and she needs a day to persuade her parents." 

"And what happens after that, Danno?" Steve asks, sounding smug as ever, and Danny swats at him again. 

"Ha ha, you're hilarious. Then nothing happens, Steven. Little tyke goes to her new home and lives happily ever after."

"What if Christy's parents say no?"

"Then Christy better talk to her science teacher and make the kitten the school mascot or something," Danny says. "I do not want a cat, I do not need a cat. Cats are hairy, their litter smells, and I'd feel bad for how often I'm not home to keep it company."

"How compassionate of you," Steve says. "We should find a name for her. How about Popsicle?"

"What is with people and naming cats after food? Also no, I see what you're doing. Naming them is one of the last steps. She's not staying here."

Steve just waves a hand in the air, a dismissal, a disagreement. Danny wants to stomp his foot, but remembers the kitten, who is now licking the side of his ear. 

Christy does, in fact, convince her parents to keep the cat. Danny may or may not suggest she name the kitten after ice cream.

* * *

  
They get the call back two days later. They're processing a crime scene (who even feels the need to pump thirteen rounds into a guy?) when Steve's phone rings. Danny listens to Steve's side of the conversation, but can't make heads or tails of what's going on, other than some girl is apparently feeling much better and that Steve's really glad to hear that, ma'am.

"Something I should know, McGarrett?" Danny asks, annoyed that he sounds vaguely jealous. Steve laughs at him but accentuates it by running a hand down Danny's back. Shivers aplenty, Danny swats at him and misses. 

"You'll never guess who that was."

"Someone that's gonna piss me off?"

"Considering how vast that list is, no." Steve's grinning from ear to ear, and it's no longer mocking, just genuine happiness. Danny tampers his libido down and cocks his head. 

"Gonna share or what? I hate suspense."

"That was the vet clinic we brought that grey cat to," Steve says. "She survived the surgery and is making an almost full recovery. She can't go through airport security, and she walks with a limp, but they were able to completely repair her hind limbs." Steve’s smile is blinding.

"Oh wow, that's great! And unexpected," Danny says. "So she's chocked full of metal now? The vet should name her Wolverine."

"I'm just glad she made it," Steve says. 

"I'm surprised. Wait - who paid for her medical bills?"

Steve is suddenly looking anywhere but at Danny. 

"I don't know why I'm surprised, really." Danny pats Steve's shoulder. "For the record, I'm really glad she survived the super risky and highly expensive surgery, too. What's gonna happen to her now?" 

"Dunno," Steve says, shrugging. He doesn't displace Danny's hand, so he leaves it there. "I guess the vet's office will either keep her or adopt her out."

"You know what?" Danny claps Steve's shoulder, then yanks his shirt, an indicator to follow. "I have a better idea."

\---

Danny barely notices when Steve emerges from his shower, too distracted by the cat's antics. She's currently playing with his hand, batting at it as Danny wiggles it beneath the bed's comforter. Danny's half asleep, aware enough to not move too much; they don't want to tear any of the cat's stitches. 

The bed moves, and the cat suddenly wants nothing to do with him. Danny blinks, then rubs his face, sitting up and looking for Steve. He's wearing sweats and nothing else, and the cat is already in his lap, purring away.

"You awake there, Danno?"

Danny gives him the finger; it takes him longer than it should. "I'm up, I'm up."

Steve reaches over and runs a hand over Danny's head, short fingernails scraping against his scalp. Danny hums and slumps back onto the bed. "And now I'm not."

Steve laughs at him, then shifts, picks up the cat, then puts her on Danny's lower back. She stands for a moment, little paws digging into his skin, before she settles right at the base of his spine. 

"This was a good idea, Danny," Steve says after a while. Danny hums, then cranes his neck. 

"Care to be a bit more specific?"

"Me keeping the cat was what I was talking about," Steve says on a chuckle, "but we're a pretty good idea, too."

"Wasn't sure there was a 'we'," Danny says, and Steve gives him a vaguely constipated look, so Danny caves and laughs at him. "Kidding, goof."

"Yeah, yeah, move over."

They lounge for a while in the waning sunlight, and Danny's almost asleep again when Steve speaks up.

“I think I’m gonna name her Olive.”

"Why, so she can go bone Mr. Pickles and they can make little dill babies?"

Steve smacks him lightly. "Just think it fits."

"Whatever you say. She's your cat."

Steve gives a contented hum, runs a hand over Danny's back, then scratches Olive's head. 

"I think it's safe to say she's our cat, now."

The thought warms Danny right up until he falls asleep, Olive purring quietly on his back.

 

**Author's Note:**

> For the record, I now want to adopt a cat that's undergone a surgery like this solely so I can name them Logan. (X-23 if it's a girl. Danno's not that nerd-savvy, after all.)


End file.
